Taiwan Trade Balance

Taiwan: Trade surplus narrows on surging imports

July 7, 2014

In June, the trade balance incurred a surplus of USD 1.9 billion. The reading was smaller than the USD 3.3 billion surplus registered in the same month last year and undershot the USD 3.7 billion surplus the market had expected. In the 12 months up to June, the trade surplus reached USD 37.0 billion—the smallest in six months.

June’s result showed that imports rebounded strongly, while export growth continued to lose momentum. Imports surged 7.5% in annual terms in June, which contrasted the 2.3% contraction observed in May. Taiwanese shipments abroad increased 1.2% year-on-year, which came in slightly below the 1.4% expansion tallied in May and marked slowest pace since January.

The government expects exports to increase 3.3% this year. FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect exports to grow 4.0% in 2014 and 6.6% in 2015.

Author:Ricardo Aceves, Senior Economist

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Taiwan Trade Balance Chart

Note: 12-month sum of trade balance in USD billion and annual average variation of the 12-month sum of exports and imports.Source: Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics (DGBAS) and FocusEconomics calculations.